Would be interesting to see an argument that the EA forum is net negative. It creates the impression that new ideas are being considered and voices are being heard, but people who have power and influence seldom actually are open to influence from EA posts, nor are there effective mechanisms by which others (like gatekeepers) disseminate such information. The most highly upvoted, and thus accessible posts are either cute, meta-level clever commentary that’s often not actionable or by high status EAs or orgs that have little difficulty having their voices be heard (although having a convenient place for them to share stuff is a useful function).
I do feel like as a place for new ideas to translate into research and, ultimately, impactful action, the EA forum is quite overrated. While I wouldn’t agree that it’s net negative, I worry that there is an assumption by community members that it is doing things that it isn’t.
A possible reframe: Under what circumstances is writing posts and/or comments on the EA Forum more (or less) likely to be an impactful use of one’s time?
For example, your answer above suggests that writing on the Forum is not impactful where the theory of change involves influencing the actions of “people who have power and influence.” I don’t have an opinion on that either way. However, both that assertion and “Forum writing influences the views of more junior people, some of whom will have power in influence in 3-10 years” could be true. If so, that would nudge us toward writing certain types of posts and away from writing others (e.g., those in which a decision has to be made soon or never).
Adjacent to this point about how we could improve EA communication, I think it would be cool to have a post that explores how we might effectively use, like, Mastodon or some other method of dynamic, self-governed federation to get around this issue. I think this issue goes well beyond just the EA forum in some ways lol.
Here is some more discussion on a very similar topic, if anyone wants more ideas. Brad and I seemed to have had this thought more or less at the same time!
Would be interesting to see an argument that the EA forum is net negative. It creates the impression that new ideas are being considered and voices are being heard, but people who have power and influence seldom actually are open to influence from EA posts, nor are there effective mechanisms by which others (like gatekeepers) disseminate such information. The most highly upvoted, and thus accessible posts are either cute, meta-level clever commentary that’s often not actionable or by high status EAs or orgs that have little difficulty having their voices be heard (although having a convenient place for them to share stuff is a useful function).
I do feel like as a place for new ideas to translate into research and, ultimately, impactful action, the EA forum is quite overrated. While I wouldn’t agree that it’s net negative, I worry that there is an assumption by community members that it is doing things that it isn’t.
A possible reframe: Under what circumstances is writing posts and/or comments on the EA Forum more (or less) likely to be an impactful use of one’s time?
For example, your answer above suggests that writing on the Forum is not impactful where the theory of change involves influencing the actions of “people who have power and influence.” I don’t have an opinion on that either way. However, both that assertion and “Forum writing influences the views of more junior people, some of whom will have power in influence in 3-10 years” could be true. If so, that would nudge us toward writing certain types of posts and away from writing others (e.g., those in which a decision has to be made soon or never).
Adjacent to this point about how we could improve EA communication, I think it would be cool to have a post that explores how we might effectively use, like, Mastodon or some other method of dynamic, self-governed federation to get around this issue. I think this issue goes well beyond just the EA forum in some ways lol.
Good suggestion! Happy Ramadan! <3
Here is some more discussion on a very similar topic, if anyone wants more ideas. Brad and I seemed to have had this thought more or less at the same time!